Aussie Politics: Renovation-Rescue

Bill Shorten has learnt the lesson of Trump, and Australian politics is going in a brand new direction.

Australian politics just got a renovation rescue, and it’s all thanks to Trump…

… and Bill Shorten.

Take a listen to this statement from Shorten over the weekend and tell me what you think.

“Economic growth has to lift all boats, not just the yachts,” Mr Shorten told AFR Weekend. “We’re not going to lose our blue-collar voters like the Democrats did.”

Mr Shorten will spend next week touring regional Queensland where there are high levels of disaffected voters, similar to those who opted for Mr Trump.

“We will buy Australian, build Australian, make in Australia and employ Australians. We will not leave people behind.”

He cited 457 visas and employers who “abuse our visa system to import and exploit cheap labour” and trade deals “which don’t deliver the blue-collar jobs for those hurt by these agreements”.

“What’s happening is we’ve got people coming to work in Australia…and, in some cases, they’re getting ripped off and exploited, lowering wage outcomes and taking the jobs of nurses, motor mechanics, carpenters, auto-electricians,” he told a Victorian Labor conference.

“These are the jobs which can be done by Australians and we make no apology for saying Labor’s approach to the Australian economy is buy Australian, build Australian, employ Australians.”

Stirring stuff. To the barricades, comrades!

But that’s not the Bill Shorten I know. The Bill Shorten I know was all like,

“I do believe the immigration levels can go up… Immigration has been a plus for us and we should be certainly as a party being seen to be pro-immigration and pro increasing it, making sure people go to wherever it is sustainable for infrastructure and support, but we are an immigrant country and we shouldn’t ever hide from our destiny.”

But that was 2013. That was before Trump and before Brexit.

Times have changed and Shorten’s not silly (I know, news to me too).

The democrats haemorrhaged voters to Trump because they were blind to what was happening on the ground – communities getting torn apart by joblessness and substance abuse.

These communities had seen their jobs exported to Mexico and China, and all they got back in return was smug, inner-city condescension.

“Stop complaining bro. Why don’t you just open a craft-brewery or vegan-leather sandal shop?

Your resistance to bespoke vegan footwear really tells me that you’re actually just a racist. You should work on that bro.”

The US election was not a contest of ideas, and it definitely wasn’t a contest of solutions.

Trump was the only one who saw the problems for what they were. Somehow (and I still wonder how a man who builds casinos and hob nobs with celebrities at beauty pageants did it) Trump connected with a deep-seated anger in many parts of the American population.

… many parts that used to be democratic heartland.

But he got it. He empathised. And he offered his own brand of solutions.

At this point, Clinton could have said, “I get it too, and here’s an alternative set of solutions.”

But she didn’t. She just said, “I promise you it will be more of the same. (Hasn’t it been fantastic?) Only now, the President will have boobs. How awesome will that be?”

#Imwithher

8 years on from the GFC and not a single finance sector executive has seen a fine or done a day of jail time.
Not one.

So for working people watching their communities falling apart, and watching Washington and Wall St making off with the money, there just wasn’t a choice.

If only one doctor recognises the problem, that’s the doctor you go to. If the other doctor tells you the symptoms are in your head, and in your head because you’re racist, how much repeat custom are they going to get?

And to his credit, Bill Shorten woke up on Wednesday and realised Pauline Hanson was the only doctor in his little town.

While the major parties were giving lip-service to globalism (see Shorten’s 2013 quote above, and Turnbull’s Innovation Agenda), Pauline was out there connecting with people who were pissed off.

And it’s true. If you take away Australia’s high immigration intake, and look at GDP on a per capita basis, we’ve been in recession for the past two years. There’s real economic pain out there.

The question is what we do about it. I’m hoping this is the beginning of a robust contest of ideas and solutions (though I don’t expect much more than a cow-paddock of spin and hollow rhetoric, but, you know, I’m hopeful.)

There are solutions that entrench divisions and open the way to longer-term pain. There are solutions that bring people together, and create exciting economic futures.

Comments

hi jonno, bill’s speech is not necessarily in conflict with his 2013 speech. immigration has made australia today. were not your forebears immigrants? the point is made that the exploitation of ‘visa’ scams are rife, but that is not true immigration(i hope) . they do return to their homeland.

pauline is a one off. she hit the scene many years ago before we got in the ‘proverbial’. only now is she being ‘heard’. amazing how people are always dumb now. but later as a success..’boy she wasn’t so dumb after all!’ to me they are real dummies awakening. i have always backed pauline, for one reason; she’s got guts. and that is a trait thats gone missing in our politically correct ‘society’ today. before the big ‘eruption’, sorry election in usa people i know were saying oh lovely hillary and that buffoon trump. most aussie sheeple have been ‘dumbed out’ by the oz media. so they suck up all the media junk and and make it ‘general knowledge you know’, everybody knows what he or she is like. really? i don’t imagine that any one in oz has ever met trump or h.r.c. or putin or any big wigs ‘overseas’. one has only to tap into some news sites from ‘overseas’..mainly russia for a balanced viewpoint. i have read a lot about russia/ukraine from 2nd century to the present day from books written by very creditable writers. russian/ukrainian people are not from mars..no..they are caucasians..just like us. amazing.

anyway i wish (ha ha ) that bill would issue a warrant for the arrest of nab, westpac and c.a.b. executives for breaching the banking laws of this country in 2008. and also the heads of the asx. for allowing it to pass. i have NO respect for any of those institutions. they are a haven for crooks. super crooks. and being that, then they are untouchable. and we accuse other countries of graft and corruption. hypocritical? one law for them..named ‘bastardry’ other laws for us mushrooms. in other words nothing has changed in the past 55,000 years. might is right..you ask jesus.

Your concerns are real. Is it not amazing also how a Trump “brawler” has stirred up such debates. All the weasel words (meant to hide the real atrophy of ideas and willingness to strengthen a broader section of the Australian community) weasel words like economical growth, creating jobs, free trade agreements etc have become meaningless through decades of overuse and deception. Meaning lies only in concrete, MEASURABLE benefits for individuals and communities. Meaning lies only in a clear and HONEST projection of a path towards an Australia with one of the best educated and highest skilled people in the world. Free University education, incentives for apprenticeship based development of trade skills (ranked equally with University education and income prospects, as you find in Germany). My detailed comments to these topics could span 3-4 pages and more, but I will only say here: mistrust ANY current politician unless they can convincingly outline concrete visions for Australia’s
future beyond their 3 year election terms (more like 20/30 year generational terms). With it must go foremost HONESTY, rational and EMOTIONAL debate as well as acceptance of critical appraisal. Another idea is not worse than mine just because it is another’s idea. Only by way of such open debate may we, most Australians, accept possible short term sacrifices for future benefits. Like the person who saves some of his/her income for future benefits, thereby forfeiting some short term comforts. Australians MUST become a more politically engaged people if we want to really determine the shape of our future instead of leaving it to politicians and lobbyists for most of whom self interest is the motivation of seeking power. Let’s clearly and LOUDLY proclaim OUR self interests by vigorously participating in this debate.

“Democracy”? It’s a farce. About The MOST divisive political system there is. It’s a con, to make the people think they have some say in the way the country is run. Really, they don’t, so it’s not actually democracy. I’m for benevolent dictatorship, myself! But maybe what we need is simply to abolish the notion of political parties, and party government. I need to think about that.

Trump? For all his faults, I think the guy is a genius. Maybe he had some help, but even so, to pull this off, while looking like an oversized orange coloured bigot is truly amazing, IMHO! I wish him all the best.

Immigration? A great way to create social, political and financial instability, unrest, division and hatred. That’s why the UN is all for it.

The question is, how to make Australia competitive in the global market? I don’t think it is. People are over-paid. Immigrants are prepared to work harder for less, because they know very well where they came from. We Westerners need to live in underprivileged countries for a few years so we appreciate “what we got” back home. But these things go in cycles. China has largely sacrificed its environment for the $. Now it’s a polluted land, overcrowded, corrupt, economically harsh, full of toxic food, and so many want to leave… So, the Chinese strategy hasn’t really worked and is going to have to change. I don’t think India can go the same way, as it doesn’t seem to understand about quality and value. So where to next for the world’s cheap labour markets? S.E. Asia?

Of course, the rich are still getting richer while the rest of us are still getting poorer. Technology and immigrants are taking our jobs, our incomes, our affluence.

How to fix it? There has to be more equitable division of wealth.

We have a couple of choices. Total Economic collapse and start again – kinda pointless – will only repeat.

Or, Jon, can you give the Space Lizards a call and ask them to sort us out?

Unless the rich learn to share, I don’t see how the world isn’t going to return to futuristic movie-style “walled” communities (Medieval castles, anyone?), surrounded by outcasts all trying to break in to take what they need. It’s a very ugly thought.

Democracy?! The government has no mandate to reduce/cancel the pensions of hundreds of thousands of retirees in January. What a disgraceful way to treat aged Australians who have paid taxes for decades. Yet their voices are ignored – democracy?!?!

I was not a Trump fan initially because of his “me first” (ie USA) politics and I could not imagine how anyone without any previous political experience could hope to “pull off” what he was proposing without sending the rest of the world into chaos. However – the more I learn about the man the more I respect and admire his foresight, he has “well and truly” read the mindset of Americans and acted to remedy it. Whether he succeeds or not is irrelevant – his reading of the situation was/is brilliant.

Sadly in our country – we are saddled with “dumb” politicians who are to wrapped up in trying to promote image and preserve their own employment – “there is a story which did the rounds” here in SA some years ago of a former Premier (Dean Brown) who when deposed by his own party advised the members that he could accept losing the premier’s job but had to retain a ministerial position because the new home he had recently built was financed based upon his particular salary – how right or wrong the story is I can’t be sure – needless to say there is probably some truth to it!!

Why is that story relevant? – because to a certain extent and with very few exceptions all of our politicians have a touch of the “Dean Browns” and will always put their own needs ahead of the country, sadly then we get part time politicians in survival mode!!

To be brutally honest neither of the present leaders (Shorten or Turnbull) impresses me at all – and the dilemma I will face along with I guess thousands of my countrymen at election time will be deciding “who is the lesser of the two evils” right now I am buggered if I know. I think the essential point they all miss – and the point Trump read very accurately (in the USA) is that people universally need to know that their country has direction and plan and is capable of providing security and lifestyle without risk or compromise. In other words they want to trust their future to someone who has theirs and the nations interest at heart and is not in the job because of its lurks and perks.

oh dear, bulgaria and moldova have just thanked pres elect d. trump for freeing their country from the globalists in that they have both now elected pro russian presidents.. now watch holland, then france and italy all bailing out from the euro zone.
the belgians are in uproar..its all russias fault and that muscle brained baboon trump…they wail on a bit i think. just in, some statistics from the ‘land of the free’ (u.s.a.) 2016 : 65 americans killed by ‘terror, 926 americans killed by their own police, 77 police murdered and 29 american police dogs (innocents) the u.s. government now labels the american citizen as no. 1 terrorist group..nice to be in police state u.s.a..

now..what about oz?? are we gonna follow uncle sam? we, as a nation, are warmongers. perhaps malcolm can call pres. putin too and shake hands and improve relations between us.

mark, you are right..the fed. is the biggest fraud of all time. and you other guys here decrying democracy..maybe we should form a club and belt some sense into the idiots in canberra.

now dear me!
pensions. there is a very active petition doing the ’rounds’ to the effect that all pollies receiving those parliamentry pensions and other goodies..hand them back and go on the centrelink pension!! or rely on your own superfund. current pollies only get two terms of office..then out!! no career pollies..just people who really care about their country. and once out, back to work at your job or pension from centrelink. its been discovered that since 1956 there has been 20 or more new taxes brought in by the government. and we still have a debit bank account. why? because we allow successive governments to spend willy nilly. in 1956 we were actually in credit and had a booming economy. little do we know that america has been sucking the life blood out of oz. like the brits did before 1945. our friends, allies. our wonderful mates in u.s.a. and uk,. and we hate russia?

Not your best piece of written rhetoric Jon.
To be fair to Bill, you should not be comparing apples with oranges. There is a big difference between undermining the whole Industrial Relations setup by abusing imported 457 labour while undermining the employment conditions of Aussie workers and an ‘Immigration Minister’ inviting migrants to settle in our immense , sparsely populated, dry country.
To equate an abused and abusing 457 worker and an adventurous migrant family is absurd.
Let’s hope Bill keeps following up on ‘7:30 Report’ & ‘4-Corners’ exposes.
Where would we be without Aunty? Long may she set the cat among the pigeons.

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